California Coast: Venice Beach Travel Tips

Venice Beach is a big tourist attraction for the Los Angeles and a local favorite since it’s a twenty minute drive or less from almost any where in Los Angeles and neighbor to Santa Monica Beach. Venice Beach is too unique and too convenient to not check out.

The Venice Sidewalk Market is a compilation of small stores and street vendors hoping to grab your attention with cheap and/or hand-made merchandise, like knock-off sunglasses, painted wooden skulls and pipes. Many fast food stands are also found on this strip, offering greasy American classics. A few places are sit-down restaurants but most are grab-and-go and style where you find your own spot to eat. You will also see a variety of street entertainers, most famously the guy wearing roller blades playing a guitar but there is also people that contort their bodies, sing and much much more. These people get real creative! Many homeless or virtually homeless people come to hang out in this area.

Ocean Front Walk is miles of smoothly paved concrete running from the beach in Venice past Santa Monica and just into Malibu right alongside the Pacific Coast Highway. Stroll past muscle beach, amazing beach front homes and the Venice Skate Park with all kinds of characters and street performers along the way.

Abbot Kinney is a hip and happening trendy street where you can find a more sophisticated shopping experience but still Venice style inspired. Many great restaurants are also found on this street. Not too far away are the Venice Canals, which is an area where unique colorful houses align a series of canals. Parking is hard to find but once you do access around the canals is easy as it is paved.